Why The Caged Soul Screams
by Pelvic Sling
Summary: Every spiritualist who isn't shaman is considered minority. After years of struggling, the Shaman Tournament opened its doors to every spiritualist such as mediums, daoshi, psychics and more. But with new types of participants brings unfamiliarity and new-found dangers. The danger heightens when a group of spiritualists, typically seen as sinful, attempt to participate as well.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Shamans were always seen as superior. Such a thing always boggled my mind. To me, shamans were like the white people of us spiritualists. Everyone else was not important, as if you didn't exist. Shunned. Weak. Worthless. Useless. Yet we all contribute to spirits just as much as shamans. But apparently, mediums, daoshi and everyone else are minorities. Well, I understand humans as a minority but, what are we again? Oh, right. We're humans with powers. We are still human. All of us.

What was it called again? Oh, right. "Unity". When a shaman supposedly lets himself – or herself; gender equality – to become possessed and fight. I see the fact of being possessed as weak. And not only that, but the fighting isn't even being done by the shaman, it's by the spirit. The shaman is literally nothing but a human puppet for the deceased. And they're glorified for it. How is that strength? How is that superior?

But I guess that's none of my business.

I should be happy really. As humans fight for acceptance amongst each other, so do us. It's like fighting for gay rights or racial equality. At least, that's how I see it. And we were successful by the way. After the revolts, the Shaman Tournament officially began to accept every spiritualist. The Council even had the courtesy to change the winning title from "Shaman King" to "Spirit Master".

Believe you me, I was the giddiest little thing when I found out and immediately began extra training. Everyone seeks to be Spirit Master in hopes that their new-found power will bring their hopes and dreams true. I simply seek the power in hopes of having everyone under the stars to be seen as equal. I just want humans and spiritualists to live together in peace. That seems like a legit dream, right? I don't want world domination or anything crazy. I just want acceptance. That's not asking for too much, right?

But many people still aren't too fond of a reaper wanting to rise to the throne.


	2. Chapter 1

I hate Mondays. Monday is the start of a new week. Monday is the first day of the working week. Monday is the day when everyone is all cranky. Monday is the day when no one is in their right minds, with their excuse being "It's Monday. Too early in the week for this". Monday is the day when everyone is literally asleep the entire day even though they're awake and moving about. And about last week, on Monday, was the day I moved to Japan from America.

I'll have you know, I was not ready for this. I stick out like a sore thumb. I don't act Japanese. I don't sound Japanese. I don't think Japanese. I defiantly don't _look_ Japanese with my brown skin. I don't understand Japan. I don't hardly speak their language. I took a crash course for what little Japanese I did know. I call myself knowing enough for small talk and being able to get around. That's all I need anyway. Hopefully we'll move somewhere else soon so I won't have to keep learning it.

And why am I here you ask? Because my dad wanted to expand his restaurant business. It's not even anything special. It's just full of typical American foods like burgers and… and…

Yeah.

Weird isn't it? A black family in Japan serving American food and can barely speak the language. Actually, the more I think about it, it's probably just me who can barely speak Japanese. I won't lie when I say I didn't believe my dad when he said we'd be moving here. He says a lot of things that doesn't happen. So for him to suddenly come out with something that big of news was no doubt something to just shove aside.

I thoroughly regret that.

But it's okay since my mom and dad seemed fine. They took the time to learn the language. Moving wasn't so bad anyway. It wasn't like I had any friends to leave behind. Once words gets out that you're a reaper, people tend to stray away. Far, far away. Your parents tell you that they went through the same struggle when people found out about them also. After a while, I just didn't let it bother me. I expected people to run away from me, so I didn't socialize with anyone. So I guess Japan is a good fresh start. I don't know them, and they don't know me.

I'm starting to think we moved to Japan because people must have found out that my parents were reapers too, and it was hurting business…

Of course, there would be some random encounters of those who wasn't afraid of me. Both genders would come to me – typically in either black or a wide assortment of random colors – and nearly praise the ground I walk on. Saying "Ooh! Reapers are so cool!" and asking me if I was really truly one. Asking me if they really existed. They were crazy in my opinion.

And everyone else… Well…

Let's just say I'm apparently out to kill everyone.

In their minds of course. I'm not murderous. Honest.

"Apparently" is the key word. Apparently I'm on a killing rampage. Apparently I'm a cruel reaper. Apparently I'm a demon spawn who needs to be sent back to hell. Apparently the majority of people _believe_ those fairytales of what a reaper is. _Apparently_ in those fairytales, I'm supposed to be a skeleton in a black cloak. _Apparently_ in another fairytale, I'm a trickster woman with wings. _Apparently_ in yet another fairytale, I'm a Greek god with two wicked sisters.

None of those are right last time I checked.

You see, the world has different systems. There's a food chain system. Political system. Economical system. Nature system. Reproductive system. Class system.

Class system.

Class system.

…

The world can be very cruel with its class system.

The majority of the time, the class system is specified by how you were born. Like whether you're attractive or ugly. Stable or handicap. Tall or short. Mental or sane. Light skinned or dark skinned. And that's about where my luck runs out. Then there's stuff you can earn. Rich or poor. Skinny or fat. Smart or dumb. Power or weakness.

And then there's us spiritualists. Each of us are in different tiers. Shamans are the highest; they are on top of us all. Shamans are praised even in human literature. The runner up are Mediums. Then some are grouped together like daoshi and psychics. And guess who's the lowest of all? Go on. Take a guess. I'll give you a hint. It starts and ends with both the letter 'R' and it's _apparent_ that all use the same weapon: a scythe.

Reaper. And we don't all use a scythe. We're lowest of the low, I swear, even under fortune tellers. Oh, you didn't know fortune tellers were spiritualists? Well they are. Pretty useless ones too, combat wise. So they tend to not fight. Besides, not all spiritualists revolve their lives around fighting. And what stuns me the most is that reapers are down talked everywhere, even amongst the humans. No idea why we're treated so badly. I mean, yeah being a reaper is partly a choice but it's an amazing choice.

We're a bit different from our shaman counterpart. While a shaman's power comes from a single choice of a ghost, our strength comes in numbers. It depends on how many souls we reap and how strong the soul was. Notice how I say soul. So I can't just walk on out there and reap some random tree spirits. Those aren't souls. Souls most of the time are humans and animals. The souls we reap are also Soul Bound to us. They cannot escape until we allow them to leave.

Oh but we do get something kind of like a shaman's guardian ghost. We get beast-servants. They're spirits to help us during our reaper lives. They are also Soul Bound to us. They're not always animals. Some are monsters and actual beasts. I never truly understood them. They're pretty…. supernatural creatures in my eyes. How can a spirit interact with the world as if it was living? Perhaps it isn't a spirit because everyone can see them, whether they can see ghosts or not. Yet if struck in a vital spot, it doesn't die. Nor does it bleed. I don't know.

So anyway, we summon them ourselves. We summon one and that one stick to us like melted marshmallows. The type of beast-servant we summon is based on our power. It's like a class system itself. A weak reaper therefore summons his or her low class beast-servant. A stronger reaper summons a middle class beast-servant and so on. Low class are creatures that are preyed upon. Middle class are ones that both are preyed upon and hunt. High class are hunter exclusive. And don't worry low class reapers! There's always room for improvement. A low class beast-servant can be trained to turn into a high-class beast servant if the reaper works hard enough.

So one cannot always assume just by looking at the small bunny rabbit that it is a weak and useless beast-servant. It has the possibility to really beat someone's ass.

But in most cases it doesn't.

It screams and runs upon hearing a coin hit concrete.

But hey! If you do manage to go from low class to high, that's a huge improvement! Almost unthinkable! I'm sure you'll get some sort of honor. Mental honor. Anyhow, most reapers own a middle class beast-servant. And me, well…

I have no idea what the fuck I have.

Everyone else walks around with leopards and rats and golems and I get a human. Well. She's human-like I suppose. She just sports white wings. That's all. She's always fully covered in a white cloak that's ripped and shredded. But it's so long that it drags behind her a bit. The hood even covers her eyes and the sleeves are too long for her. One of these days, I'll get her a new cloak. Despite all the white she has on, her skin is a light shade of purple. If she would show her eyes more often, I'd be able to describe how red and pretty they are, just like her hair.

I call her Lore. She said I could name her anything, and I did. Not only did I break that off from my mother's beautiful name, Loretta, but I believe that my beast-servant is a lore. Yes, a lore. And by that I mean that she is one of many lore about what a grim reaper should be. She's supernatural and probably has an amazing life story. We get along just fine by the way. She's my best friend. While some others may have ran away from me, she has stayed by my side no matter what. I believe just by having a strong bond alone make her at least middle class.

And I do in fact consider her a middle class beast-servant. Humans are both preyed upon and hunters, right? But no one can really clarify what class she is until a life-or-death situation fight. Hear me out. During a fight like that, you will desperately try to stay alive while attempting to kill the other. Therefore a person would use many strong attacks and have to move a lot. Now, if my ass feels drained of power after using maybe two of the same strong skill, then Lore is lower than low. But if I can manage and hold out with her power, depending on the enemy, she might be middle or high.

I'm really hoping for high.

Oh, and we fight different from shamans. They have furyoku, we have energy. Both are limited during a fight. We reap souls to get energy. Shamans can simply rest themselves to regain furyoku. Once our energy is gone, we're sitting ducks. Just like shamans when they run out of furyoku. I have these flower shaped beads wrapped around my weapon. When I reap a soul, it fills up entire bead and makes that bead glow whatever color. Yet during a fight, when I take part of the enemy's soul to weaken them and try to fill a bead, it doesn't fill all the way.

Which brings me to this point: all reapers have a way to keep their souls. We all have a way to store energy. Once we use that energy, whatever soul that was Soul Bound is released to Heaven or Hell. In my case, whenever I use an attack that requires beads, the souls are released from used beads after the attack. Keep in mind, I only have so many beads. So I can't just go ham all over Timbuktu. It's cool in my opinion. If I reap a cat, it becomes Soul Bound to me. If I go to attack, I can just swing my weapon and use the bead with the cat in it. My slashes are now accompanied by a cat's claws slashing along with me. Using the bead with the cat in it will slowly drain until it is empty. Once empty, the cat is then no longer Soul Bound and is released, and my attacks will no longer be strengthened by claws. Hopefully the cat goes to Heaven.

Oh, and we don't get to choose where the soul goes. Depending on how it did in its life, it goes to either or. We're doing a favor by reaping. Really. We are. Both Heaven and Hell have so many gates to get through for a soul to be accepted. Failing any results in being a simple wandering soul of the Earth. Get reaped by a reaper and get instant access, no gates required. Free ticket.

And even being such a nice, easy ride to their destination, we're still feared by both the living and dead. But honestly, I think everyone is scared because _apparently_ we reapers are supposed to run around stealing people's souls and damning them to Hell. So I have just one argument back to that:

It's not just people's souls. Okay?

Now excuse me while I _apparently _go to the cemetery to go steal people's soul and damn everyone to Hell.


End file.
